Legislature passes halfway point, debates nearly 250 bills in final days before transmittal deadline
It's day 47 of the 69th Montana Legislature and lawmakers are deep into the second of two full-day floor sessions.
The Legislature blew past the halfway mark of the 90-day session this week and is approaching the transmittal break — five days when lawmakers won't meet — which will last until March 14.
Transmittal is one of the first deadlines set by the Legislature to ensure progress is made on the body of proposed laws under consideration for the session. Normally the halfway point of the session, legislative leaders this year delayed transmittal by three days to day 48 of the legislative session, March 7. Transmittal marks the deadline for general bills to pass through at least one chamber, or the bill is considered dead.
The exceptions to this rule are revenue, appropriations or referenda bills, and joint resolutions, which can be introduced up until the 62nd legislative day.
'I'm glad that there's a transmittal deadline, otherwise legislators would just keep procrastinating into 2026 I'm sure,' Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, told reporters on Tuesday. 'It's always a rush like this at the end.'
To get through the maximum amount of bills in the finals days before transmittal, both chambers began holding marathon days of hearings — starting as early as 7 a.m. in some committees and running late into the evening earlier this week. Wednesday and Thursday were full-day floor sessions with each chamber gaveling in for a morning and an afternoon slate of bills to debate and vote on.
Over two days, the House scheduled 141 bills for floor debate and the Senate scheduled 99 — though a few were debated both days — roughly 17% of all 1,417 bills introduced this session, according to the Montana Free Press Capitol Tracker. That number does not include forthcoming appropriations bills, or a number of draft requests for the Senate to approve gubernatorial appointments
According to the online legislative bill tracker, lawmakers requested 4,440 total bill drafts — just shy of the the 2023 session record of 4,643. That session, 1,698 bills were introduced and 885 were adopted and signed by the governor.
Both chambers will be in on Friday for floor sessions for final third reading votes on all bills that pass an initial chamber vote today.
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